Sun Luyu

Sun Luyu (died August or September 255),[2] courtesy name Xiaohu, was an imperial princess of the state of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period of China. She was the younger daughter of Sun Quan, the founding emperor of Wu, and his concubine Bu Lianshi. She is also referred to as Princess Zhu (朱公主/朱主)[2] because of her marriage to Zhu Ju.

Sun Luyu
孫魯育
Princess Zhu (朱公主)
BornUnknown[1]
DiedAugust or September 255[2]
Nanjing, Jiangsu
Spouse
  • Zhu Ju, Marquis of Yunyang (m. 229)
  • Liu Zuan (m. 250)
IssueEmpress Jing
Names
Family name: Sun (孫)
Given name: Luyu (魯育)
Courtesy name: Xiaohu (小虎)
HouseHouse of Sun
FatherSun Quan
MotherBu Lianshi
In this Chinese name, the family name is Sun.

Life

Sun Luyu was the younger daughter of Sun Quan, the founding emperor of Eastern Wu, and his concubine Bu Lianshi. She had an elder sister, Sun Luban. The sisters' courtesy names, Xiaohu (小虎) and Dahu (大虎), respectively mean "small tiger" and "big tiger". Sun Luyu initially married Zhu Ju, a general who briefly served as the fifth Imperial Chancellor of Wu.[3] She and Zhu Ju had a daughter, who married Sun Quan's sixth son, Sun Xiu, who was also a half-brother of Sun Luyu.[4][5]

In the 240s, a power struggle broke out between two of Sun Quan's sons – Sun He, the Crown Prince and Sun Ba, the Prince of Lu – with both of them fighting over the position of Crown Prince. The power struggle had a polarising effect on Sun Quan's subjects; two opposing factions, each supporting either Sun He or Sun Ba, emerged from among them. During this time, Sun Luyu's husband Zhu Ju supported Sun He,[6] while Sun Luyu's sister Sun Luban and her husband Quan Cong sided with Sun Ba. When Sun Luban tried to get Sun Luyu to support Sun Ba, Sun Luyu refused and became estranged from her sister as a result.[7][8]

In 250, the power struggle came to an end when Sun Quan forced Sun Ba to commit suicide and deposed Sun He from his position as Crown Prince. Many of the officials involved in the power struggle were executed, exiled or removed from office.[9] Sun Luyu's husband, Zhu Ju, was demoted and reassigned to a new post in Xindu Commandery (新都郡; around present-day Chun'an County, Zhejiang). While Zhu Ju was en route to Xindu Commandery, Sun Hong (孫弘), one of Sun Ba's supporters, took advantage of Sun Quan's poor health to issue a fake imperial decree ordering Zhu Ju to commit suicide. Zhu Ju thought that the decree was genuine so he killed himself as ordered.[10] The general Liu Zuan (劉纂) had previously married Sun Quan's second daughter (a half-sister of Sun Luban and Sun Luyu), but she died early, so Sun Quan arranged for him to marry the widowed Sun Luyu.[11][12]

In August or September 255 during Sun Liang's reign, Sun Yi (孫儀) and others plotted to overthrow the regent Sun Jun, but were discovered and executed before they could carry out their plan. Sun Luban, who had a secret affair with Sun Jun after her husband Quan Cong died in 249, seized the opportunity to falsely accuse her estranged sister Sun Luyu of being involved in the plot. Sun Jun believed Sun Luban and had Sun Luyu arrested and executed.[13][2] She was buried at Shizigang (石子崗; literally "stones hill"),[14] a hill in present-day Yuhuatai District, Nanjing, Jiangsu.

Postmortem events

After Sun Jun died in 256, his cousin Sun Chen succeeded him as the regent for the Wu emperor Sun Liang. Sometime between 256 and 258, Sun Liang suspected that Sun Luban had something to do with Sun Luyu's death, so he summoned his half-sister and questioned her. A fearful Sun Luban lied to him, "I really don't know. I heard it from Zhu Ju's sons, Zhu Xiong (朱熊) and Zhu Sun (朱損).[lower-alpha 1]" Sun Liang thought that Zhu Xiong and Zhu Sun betrayed Sun Luyu to Sun Jun – especially since Zhu Sun married Sun Jun's younger sister – so he ordered Ding Feng to execute Zhu Xiong and Zhu Sun.[16][17]

In 258, Sun Chen deposed Sun Liang and replaced him with Sun Xiu, Sun Quan's sixth son, as the third emperor of Wu. Sun Xiu's wife, Lady Zhu, was the daughter of Zhu Ju and Sun Luyu.[4] On 18 January 259, Sun Xiu staged a coup d'état against the regent Sun Chen, succeeded in ousting him from power, and ordered Sun Chen and his entire family to be executed. Sun Xiu also had Sun Jun's dead body unearthed and stripped of the honours accorded to him, and posthumously rehabilitated the people who were executed during Sun Jun and Sun Chen's regencies. Sun Luyu was one of them.[18]

Sometime between 6 November and 5 December 264, Sun Hao, the fourth emperor of Wu, ordered Sun Luyu's remains to be unearthed and reburied with honours befitting her status as a princess.[19] The Soushen Ji recorded an account as follows:

[Sun Hao] wanted to have [Sun Luyu]'s remains unearthed and properly reburied, but the graves all looked the same and he could not tell which was hers. Some palace servants claimed they could remember the clothes she wore when she died, so [Sun Hao] ordered two shamans to separately summon her spirit and observe closely. After some time, the shamans saw a woman in her 30s dressed in purple and white, wearing a blue patterned headpiece and red silk shoes. She walked up the hill to the middle, placed her hands on her knees and sighed, and stopped there for a while before walking towards a grave. She wandered around the grave and disappeared suddenly. The descriptions given separately by the two shamans were very similar. When her coffin was opened, they saw that her appearance was exactly as described.[20]

See also

Notes
  1. Although Zhu Xiong (朱熊) and Zhu Sun (朱損) were Zhu Ju's sons,[15] it is not known who their mother(s) was/were. They were most probably born to Zhu Ju's concubine(s), so Sun Luyu, as Zhu Ju's wife, would have been their stepmother.

References
  1. While Lady Sun's birth year is not recorded, her mother joined Sun Quan's harem after 199 (Sun Ce's invasion of Lujiang). Thus, her birth year should be between 199 and 225.
  2. ([高貴鄉公正元二年（乙亥、二五五年）]秋，七月，吳將軍孫儀、張怡、林恂謀殺孫峻，不克，死者數十人。全公主譖朱公主於峻，曰「與儀同謀」。峻遂殺朱公主。) Zizhi Tongjian vol. 76. This account dates Lady Sun's death to the 7th month of that year, which corresponds to 20 Aug to 18 Sep 255 in the Julian calendar.
  3. (魯育公主字小虎，大帝次女，步後所生，適朱據。) Jiankang Shilu vol. 4.
  4. (孫休朱夫人，朱據女，休姊公主所生也。) Sanguozhi vol. 50.
  5. (吳主權步夫人， ... 生二女，長曰魯班，字大虎，前配周瑜子循，後配全琮；少曰魯育，字小虎，前配朱據， ...) Sanguozhi vol. 50.
  6. (殷基通語曰：初權旣立和為太子，而封霸為魯王，初拜猶同宮室，禮秩未分。 ... 自侍御賔客造為二端，仇黨疑貳，滋延大臣。丞相陸遜、大將軍諸葛恪、太常顧譚、驃騎將軍朱據、會稽太守滕胤、大都督施績、尚書丁密等奉禮而行，宗事太子，驃騎將軍步隲、鎮南將軍呂岱、大司馬全琮、左將軍呂據、中書令孫弘等附魯王，中外官僚將軍大臣舉國中分。) Tongyu annotation in Sanguozhi vol. 59.
  7. (初，孫和為太子時，全主譖害王夫人，欲廢太子，立魯王，朱主不聽，由是有隙。) Sanguozhi vol. 50.
  8. (初，全主譖王夫人並廢太子和，欲立魯肅王霸為嗣。朱主不聽，全主恨之。) Jiankang Shilu vol. 4.
  9. (時全寄、吳安、孫奇、楊笁等陰共附霸，圖危太子。譖毀旣行，太子以敗，霸亦賜死。) Sanguozhi vol. 59.
  10. (... 遂左遷新都郡丞。未到，中書令孫弘譖潤據，因權寢疾，弘為昭書追賜死，時年五十七。) Sanguozhi vol. 57.
  11. (... 後配劉纂。) Sanguozhi vol. 50.
  12. (吳歷曰：纂先尚權中女，早卒，故又以小虎為繼室。) Wu Li annotation in Sanguozhi vol. 50.
  13. (五鳳中，孫儀謀殺峻，事覺被誅。全主因言朱主與儀同謀，峻枉殺朱主。) Sanguozhi vol. 50.
  14. (及少帝即位，孫儀謀殺孫峻事覺，伏誅。全主因譖朱主，埋於石子崗。) Jiankang Shilu vol. 4.
  15. (孫亮時，二子熊、損各復領兵，為全公主所譖，皆死。) Sanguozhi vol. 57.
  16. (太平中，孫亮知朱主為全主所害，問朱主死意？全主懼曰：「我實不知，皆據二子熊、損所白。」亮殺熊、損。損妻是峻妹也，) Sanguozhi vol. 50.
  17. (亮內嫌綝，乃推魯育見殺本末，責怒虎林督朱熊、熊弟外部督朱損不匡正孫峻，乃令丁奉殺熊於虎林，殺損於建業。) Sanguozhi vol. 64.
  18. (永安元年十二月丁卯， ... 闓乘船欲北降，追殺之。夷三族。發孫峻棺，取其印綬，斲其木而埋之，以殺魯育等故也。綝死時年二十八。休恥與峻、綝同族。特除其屬籍，稱之曰故峻、故綝云。休又下詔曰：「諸葛恪、滕胤、呂據蓋以無罪為峻、綝兄弟所見殘害，可為痛心，促皆改葬，各為祭奠。其罹恪等事見遠徙者，一切召還。」) Sanguozhi vol. 64.
  19. ([元興元年]冬十月， ... 以禮葬魯育公主。) Jiankang Shilu vol. 4.
  20. (案，《搜神記》：後主欲改葬主，塚瘞相亞，不可識別，而宮人頗有識主亡時衣服，乃使兩巫各住一處以伺其靈，使察戰監之，不得相近。久之，二巫各見一女，年三十餘，上著青錦束頭，紫白夾裳，丹綈絲屨，從石子崗上半崗，而以手抑膝長息，小住須臾，進一塚上便止，徘徊，奄然不見。二巫不謀而言同，遂開棺，衣服與所言同爾。) Jiankang Shilu vol. 4.
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